CPRIT Funding Helps SOP Researchers Battle Cancer

In November, TTUHSC cancer researchers received nearly $6 million in combined funding from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) and more than $4 million of the total went to four SOP investigators.

TTUHSC President Tedd L. Mitchell, M.D., said the new funds demonstrate the institution�s competitive research.

�Competition is fierce for CPRIT funding,� Mitchell said. �Our faculty members have demonstrated their research programs can compete effectively at the state and national levels. We congratulate them for their dedication to the type of research that seeks answers for combating this disease.�

In this latest grant cycle, CPRIT apportioned roughly $100 million in funding to projects headed by Texas cancer researchers. The institue has now awarded more more than $550 million in funding throughout the state for cancer research, prevention and commercialization projects during the last two years.

�In the two short years that we have been investing in cancer research, drug development and prevention efforts in Texas, we continue to be impressed by the quality of the work being done around the state,� said Jimmy Mansour, founding chairman of the institute�s governing board. �The fact that this research is being done right here in our own state is a testament to the people of Texas who made a commitment to support the fight against this deadly disease.�

Jodey Arrington, Texas Tech vice chancellor for research, commercialization and federal relations, said that competition for these awards remains a top strategic priority for the Texas Tech University System (TTUS) and the Office of Research and Commercialization assists its universities in pursuing these external funding opportunities.

�Our faculty did a great job and we can do even better as we leverage our competitive advantage of being the only public institution in Texas with a health sciences and general academic university on the same campus,� Arrington said.

TTUS Chancellor Kent Hance praised the efforts that have more than doubled the amount of state cancer research funding received by the school during the last year.

�The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas does an outstanding job furthering the battle against cancer, and we are very grateful for their continued support of our universities through these research grants,� Hance said.